Syracuse Cancels “Kiss Cam” After Person Pens Letter Saying It Promotes Sexual Assault

Dan Regester10 years ago

You’re all familiar with the “kiss cam.” The jumbotron rotates from couple to couple around the venue, pressuring those dating or married to lay a wet one on their significant other for the whole crowd to see. It always ends with the same exhausted joke with two heterosexual buddies next to each other placed inside the heart and everyone getting a good chuckle out of the five seconds of awkwardness that ensues. Hardy har har, didn’t see that coming for the 734th straight time. It’s as vital to the game experience as “Welcome to the Jungle”,”Let’s Get Ready To Rumble”, or the countless other “Jock Jams” the stadium operator will blast from the speakers.

Well, now this sports staple is under serious fire and has been pulled from Syracuse University’s Carrier Dome after ONE person wrote a letter to Syracuse.com questioning the appropriateness of the between timeouts shenanigans and whether or not the gag promotes sexual assault.

From Syracuse.com:

During the Sept. 12, game between the Orange and Wake Forest, letter writer Steve Port said he witnessed two incidences on the kiss cam in which women indicated they didn’t want to be kissed. Yet, the men nearby kissed them anyway to cheers from the crowd.

“The instances I witnessed at the game encourage and condone sexual assault and a sense of male entitlement, at best. And they are an actual instance of assault, at worst,” Port wrote in his letter.

“No one has the right to forcefully touch someone be it a hug, a kiss or a violent rape.
I adamantly insist that Syracuse University student government, the chancellor, the athletic director, etc. review what happened last weekend and seriously consider the ramifications of what they are encouraging,” he said

Easy there, chief. Let’s not compare a kiss on the cheek to violent gang rape. Other countries actually greet every asshole they’ve held a five minute conversation with by brushing their faces together on both sides, and full on lips on cheeks if they’re more familiar. I experienced this first hand when I went to my South American college girlfriend’s family functions. I never wanted to go anywhere close to her Grandma, who reeked of a combination of Vick’s vapor rub, sour milk, and an overkill of the cheapest perfume imaginable to try to mask those other two scents, but I reluctantly obliged to the two pecks anyway. Do I go crying sexual assault there? I certainly never consented.

Shit like this infuriates me, because it waters down people’s attention and actually hurts those in REAL sexual assault cases. You realize every time you blow little things like this completely out of proportion, you’re just taking away credibility of legitimate victims. “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” Ever heard of it?

Also, if one person inking a letter can change the way things operate during a game, I need to get started on my “I should legally be allowed to shoot any person that starts the wave” essay..

[via Syracuse.com]

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